Death at a Free for All
by masterofbones
Summary: Trying to make a RWBY story where actions have consequences and people are a bit smarter. The chapters will be pretty short, but the story should progress pretty quickly anyway. Time to party!
1. Domino 1: Professional

**Domino 1: Professional**

Torchwick was a professional, and he only hired professionals. The three men behind him were all trained Hunters, albeit Hunters down on their luck. No-nonsense, capable of independent action, but still willing to follow orders as long as a good paycheck was in their future. Torchwick may have made them wear matching sunglasses in the middle of the night, but he at least made it seem like there was a good reason for it. Not that there _wasn't_ a good reason. But not everyone understands how important looking badass is.

He wasn't wearing sunglasses though. No, that was for the mooks. He would never call them that of course, but it was understood. Torchwick was instead wearing a fully tailored outfit; white jacket with deep red inner lining and snazzy yellow and black buttons(the truth was, he couldn't decide which buttons to use, so he chose them at random). A thin gray scarf was wrapped around his neck, allowing his appearance to be a bit less orderly without sacrificing any classiness. His black slacks had been recently destroyed in a most frustratingly comical situation involving a faunus and a loose thread, but the brown pants he was forced to wear instead didn't totally detract from the look he desired. Black gloves, a cane, and a bowler hat finished off the outfit, the hat in particular framing his luxurious flowing red hair, resulting in an outfit that practically shouted "I am unique, individual, and you will love me regardless of my horrible crimes or your opinions on the matter of criminals". Perfect.

Now that fashion was accounted for, he could finish the secondary goal – the inexpensive acquisition of large quantities of magical Dust. He had made several such profitable exchanges so far today, but it was getting late, so finding a dust shop that was open could be a bit of a chore. Luckily, Ye Old Man Guild made it a point to require that member shopkeepers kept their stores open at all hours, and Torchwick knew of at least one Dust shop under said guild's control.

The small group arrived at the shop, and Torchwick rolled his eyes at the pun on the sign as he walked in. The old man behind the counter smiled at him, unaware of the calamity he was about to face. One of the moo- _hired professionals_ quietly revealed his gun to the shopkeeper, gently resting his hand on the grip and stealing away the man's smile as easily as the rest of the robbery should… _would_ go.

That was about when Torchwick noticed the girl turned away from them and reading a magazine in the back of the shop. A red cloak obscured most of her form, but a large bundle – clearly a folded-up weapon – was strapped to her back. A huntress, or a huntress in training. Only an absolute moron would ignore such a thing. One of his employees looked at the girl, and then back at Torchwick with a questioning expression, and Torchwick frowned. They would have to do this quietly. Child or no, Hunters were wild cards, and he had plans for tonight. He was about to signal a stealthy continuation of the plan when he paused. That was the safe option, sure. But this could figure into his plans. He looked at his man with a thoughtful expression, then turned to the shopkeeper. "I don't want any problems here, and if you see any, I want you to _quietly put them out of their misery_ before I have to deal with them." He ignored the shopkeeper's insistence that there would be no problems, noting instead the movement out of the corner of his eye that showed that his message had been sent. Disposing of the body would be a pain, but not as painful as dealing with an unknown huntress. Raising a finger, Torchwick hushed the shopkeeper with a grimace. "Burn dust, uncut. And I want to see each crystal before you box it – you aren't passing off any low quality stuff onto me". Thus was the old man kept from noticing the one event that might have made him willing to reveal any personal details about the strange man robbing him, instead of following normal policy of "keep your mouth shut unless you want him to come back and shut your mouth for you".

It is said that Hunters can detect killing intent. It is also said that Hunters have learned to hide all emotion, since their primary prey are emotion-sensing monstrosities. Perhaps both sayings are true. But for whatever reason, the young raven-haired girl reading a magazine while blasting music into her ears did not notice the man with a blade behind her until it was too late. This robbery was to go according to plan, and a novice huntress was not enough to keep that from happening. It wasn't the most enjoyable thing that the hired Hunter had ever done, but he had gotten used to distasteful jobs. No Hunter really counted as a child anyway, regardless of size. And no Hunter could survive being run through by his sword, protective Aura be damned. The red cloak was even kind enough to contain most of the mess.

Less dust was carried out of the shop than intended, on account of one man having to carry a large and unwieldy bag instead of containers of dust, but overall the take was well within acceptable parameters. The additional package would be dealt with appropriately, and there was little chance of the girl's… _disappearance_ becoming connected to Torchwick in any way. That wouldn't fit his image after all. One could hardly be a lovable thief if one went around killing kids. Torchwick smiled and allowed himself a single twirl of his cane… when nobody was looking of course - he was a professional after all.


	2. Domino 2: Barfight

**Author's note: The RWBY word for phone kinda pisses me off. So I censored it.**

 **Domino 2: Barfight**

Ruby was missing, and Yang was _pissed_. The two Vale policemen she had been able to find were both busy talking to a shopkeeper about something stupid like a robbery. She couldn't be bothered to wait for them, and punching them until they paid attention was a little more foolish of an action than even Yang was willing to do. They probably wouldn't have been of much help anyway. She got on her motorcycle and rode off.

The Vale police department was a no-go. When Yang got there there wasn't a single other person present. The front door was locked. Someone had even taped a sign to it that said "Out on police business". Who else do you go to when your kid sister disappears for an entire day and law enforcement is nowhere to be found?

 _Thud._ The large double doors of the club slammed open, due in no small part to the insistence of Yang's foot. The bartender looked up at her, then tilted his head with a confused look in his eye. None of the dancers in the center seemed to notice thanks to the blaring music and flashing lights. The alcohol probably had some effect on their lack of reaction as well. The young blond stared at him defiantly, her expression daring him to complain. He raised an eyebrow, but went back to washing the mug in his hand with a shrug.

The young woman walked up to the bar. "Where is she?" Yang asked, fire in her voice, and rage in her eyes. The unclear nature of her request seemed entirely lost on her. It is likely that she was not particularly given to large amounts of introspection.

"Woah, woah, woah..." The bartender said quickly, raising his hands in a placating manner. "Where is who? I can't help you unless you give me some info. And I don't normally give info for free to anyone."

"You'll give it to me though," Yang placed her fists on the bar, revealing the large customized gauntlets she wore, easily recognizable as a Hunter's weapon. She leaned in in a threatening manner, but the bartender only seemed to be half-aware of the threat, as the rest of him preferred to focus on her nicely framed assets. On the other hand, he might have been more aware than he let on, judging from how his hand was slowly reaching under the bar as she spoke to him.

"Uh… I still don't know who the hell you are talking about."

Yang rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration. She pulled out her ***** and showed a picture of a grey-eyed, black haired girl in a red hood to the bartender. "I hear you know everyone in town. Have you heard about a girl like this? Her name is Ruby, and she's my sister."

The bartender looked at the picture, then aimed a perplexed glance at Yang. "I'm not really in the business of finding kids you know… Shouldn't you go to the police with this?

"Oh, you mean one of the TWO POLICEMEN IN ALL OF VALE?" Yang shouted. "I _would_ have, but unfortunately they were busy. You know, since they have to take care of an _entire city_ by themselves.

"I'm pretty sure there are more than tw-"

"ONLY TWO, IN ALL, OF VALE" Yang cut the bartender off, uninterested in his "rational" assertions. "So anyway _Junior…_ Who seriously calls themselves that anyway? But that's not important. Tell me where Ruby is now or I trash the place, starting with you."

At this point what was left of the bartender's – _Junior_ 's patience finally left him. His neutral expression faded, replaced by an aggravated scowl. "Look _sweetheart_ ," he drawled, fake sweetness oozing from his voice, "I don't know where your sister is, and if you haven't noticed, I've actually been trying to be helpful here. So if you wouldn't mind, how about you calm down or GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CLUB!" He shouted the last words, pointing the way to the door in case she didn't get the message.

Unfortunately, Yang was a woman of her word. She hadn't heard Ruby's location, so it was now club-trashing time. She fired her shotgun-gauntlets, using the momentum from the blasts to pull her into a backflip, landing on a table on the edge of the dance floor… which didn't even rock at the impact. She looked around while assuming her usual combat stance, noticing that the bar itself was also unscathed, evidenced by the way Junior was wiping away the blast marks to reveal a smooth and unblemished surface.

As Yang looked on in confusion, Junior put down his rag and picked up a microphone. "Attention all dancers. Unfortunately, the dance floor needs to be closed down for evening due to an unexpected emergency. I apologize for the inconvenience, and do hope you will come back soon." With that the music and flashing lights shut down, and there was suddenly a large mass of erstwhile dancers moving towards Yang.

She prepared to defend herself from the crowd, but realized that they didn't intend any violence. They were merely moving to pick up the stuff that they had left at their tables. However, they were completely blocking her access to Junior just as well as an angry mob would have. Better even, since she didn't want to hurt any non-combatants. So instead of blasting her way through, she waited, silently glaring at Junior, who met her eyes with a flat expression and a shrug.

After everyone had filed out(avoiding Yang as much as space permitted), Junior strolled out onto the dance floor, resting a massive bat on his shoulder. "Now that you have cost me a full evening's profit, I'm going to give you one last chance to leave quietly. You interested?"

But Yang had already sprung into action. Firing her gauntlets behind her, she rocketed toward Junior. But as she neared him, twisting and readying a mighty punch, an impact from above smashed her into the ground, causing her to slide unceremoniously along the smooth floor, stopping just in front of Junior. Yang caught herself and looked back for the cause of her current position, noting a young woman in a white dress smirking in the middle of the dance floor.

"That's not fair, you little cheater" Yang complained as she slowly got up.

She really should have been paying more attention to the man in front of her, who brought this to her attention via gentle ministration with his bat. "Fair? FAIR?" he shouted, emphasizing the word with a swing, "What's not fair is some blond bimbo walking into my bar and attacking me just because I don't know where every damn girl in the city is!"

Yang's body flew across the room and stopped after hitting an extremely solid pillar. Junior and the girl in white slowly walked towards her, joined by an almost identical girl in a red dress who was wielding a pair of metal claws.

"You don't have to worry about this Junior. Melanie and I can take out the trash for you" breathed the girl in red.

The girl in white agreed. "Yeah, Militia and I have this handled. We don't want the dance floor to get too crowded after all!"

Junior frowned. "No, we do this smart. Never underestimate Hunters" Following his own advice, when he noticed Yang getting back up with a distinct glow around her body, he charged forward and swung his bat into her face once more. She slid several feet across the floor, a blood smear betraying a broken nose at the minimum. However, Junior didn't appear happy with this result. "She's still got plenty of life in her. There was a hell of a lot more resistance than I expected. We need to take her down fast and hard."

Once again Yang glowed, this time even brighter than before. Once again she began picking herself up, and when she did, her eyes were glowing red. But once again, she was knocked down, this time by a kick from Melanie from one side, and a slash from militia from the other.

"This way sucks though. Takes out all the fun" It seemed that at least one of the girls would have preferred a more fair fight. But that didn't keep her from kicking the repeatedly downed girl once more.

"EYARGH!" This time Yang didn't bother with the dramatic slow rise, having been repeatedly taught that such flair was a good way to get trounced. Instead she fired her right-hand gauntlet, using the recoil to flip her back onto her feet. She was moving far faster now, despite the bruises and broken nose she had sustained. Once again she charged forward, but this time she knew where her opponents where. Claws swung out, and she ducked under them. However, a kick from the other girl was coming at the same time, and Yang was only able to partially deflect it, leading to another bruise that she intended to pay these bastards back for tenfold. But the bartender's club had turned into a missile launcher at some point, and the several were streaking towards her.

However, Yang was ready for this, and after shooting each missile was able to ride the blasts from the explosions with impressive grace for one whose head had been so recently introduced to various extremely solid objects. She landed halfway up one of the pillars dominating the room, pushing off of it in order to rapidly return to the fight, firing both her gauntlets to speed things up. Junior swung his weapon – a bat once more - but Yang managed to evade the blow with a gauntlet-powered backflip. Said backflip caused a happy meeting between her feet and Junior's face, knocking him down and causing him to slide on the ground for a few feet. Any feelings of elation on Yang's part were short lived however, as the two girls took advantage of her divided attention.

One claw hit Yang hard enough to draw blood, but she able to deflect a kick from a shoe that she now realized had a nasty blade on the heel. Not quite as worrisome as large metal claws perhaps, but something she would need to remember. She knocked away the claw using her right gauntlet and spun right as she did so to enable a solid punch on the wielder of the offending weapon. A punch augmented with a gauntlet blast of course.

Militia took the hit with surprise. It was clear from her face that she had not been expecting a blow quite as strong or fast as Yang had provided. Nor had her plans included flying from combat at high velocity only to stop after hitting a solidly built table. Aura or no, that would likely leave a bruise, at least for a little while. But she spat out stray burn dust that had gotten into her mouth and got up not much the worse for wear. She had plenty of fight left in her.

By the time Militia rejoined the fight, Junior and Melanie were trading blows with Yang, and the young woman somehow seemed to be keeping up. This fight had turned out way more even than it had any right to, which assuredly meant that the girl was using some sort of powerful semblance, some power that was keeping her in the game. But using semblances took focus. If she could be distracted, even for a few moments….

At that moment a massive flash of light and smoke exploded in the middle of the fight, accompanied by a voice that although not extremely loud, still carried clear and bright through the large room. "As much as I enjoy watching a good fight, I do actually have a schedule. So if you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate if you would pause all hostilities until I have gotten what I need, at which point I would be happy to allow you to resume your little dance." As the smoke cleared, and the combatants blinked stars from their eyes, they finally managed to see the newcomer – a certain red-haired individual with a bowler hat and cane. He stood casually leaning on his cane with a cigar in his other hand and gave a broad wink at the group.

"Wha?" Yang muttered wearily, her head hazy from the surprise pausing of the brawl. She suddenly felt tired, _really_ tired. She had taken quite a beating hadn't she? She saw the red haired man wink at her, and at that point she just gave up trying to understand what was going on.

The girl collapsed on the ground. The last thing she heard for some time was a merry peal of laughter, and the redhead saying something about his wink being unusually potent today.


	3. Domino 3: Boredom

**For anyone worried that the villains are too strong, this chapter is for you. :D**

 **Domino 3: Boredom**

A tall blond woman collapsed into a chair, riding crop in hand. The tip brushed her forehead as she stared at the ceiling in a dejected manner, slowly slumping even further into her chair with a pout on her face. "Tell me, why did I agree to this job again?" With that she twitched her crop, at which point a pencil rose from the cup on the desk in which it had rested, and went flying towards the other person in the room.

"Glynda, please. You know just as well as I do why we set things up like this." Her silver-haired colleague didn't look up from his desk at the head of the large office, not even when the pencil bounced off of his forehead. He merely continued reading from the piles of paperwork in front of him with a focused expression as he spoke. However, since Glynda showed no sign of rescinding her question, and the risk of additional projectiles being fired loomed, he eventually did explain as she had asked. "My abilities are perfect for someone in a prominent position, which additionally allows you to move with less attention on you. And with your _situation_ it is best to keep eyes off of you as much as possible. Besides, you refused to even consider accepting the responsibility that comes with being in charge, so here we are." With the threat of office supply projectiles averted, he continued his work.

"Yeah, and Qrow refuses to stay in Vale, so we need _someone_ here. I just wish it didn't have to be me. And of course I can't get drunk without risking destroying half of Vale, so I have to sit around here stone sober. There aren't even students to pick on right now. UGH!" She got up from her chair abruptly. "I'm going to go beat up some criminals. Want to join me?"

The man didn't move from his spot as he spoke, "You know I'm busy. But I will help you find you a target, if you at least promise to at least _try_ to bring them in. I recognize that isn't why you fight them, but I only have so much effort I'm willing to waste." He paused, then queried, "Speaking of which, why is the paperwork you handed me already completed?"

"An official was watching me, so I had to do some of it. It was just some applications that needed approval, nothing special about them. So I just went ahead and signed off on them all. Might as well lighten your load rather than just pretend to do stuff and make him suspicious." She gave a shrug, indicating her opinion on the importance of ensuring the quality of Beacon students. "I don't know why we even bother trying to make Vale officials like us. It isn't like they can actually do anything to us. Anyways, you owe me for that paperwork"

The silver haired man signed. "Ignoring your treasonous assertions, I really shouldn't trust that you checked this properly. On the other hand, I feel that I should encourage any time you actually bother trying to help out with official business." He stared at the papers before him, then concluded, "All things considered, I am grateful for your assistance. It will reduce my workload somewhat, which means more time for me to work on more long-term issues."

"It's a good thing you're so boring Ozpin." The woman said lightly as she strolled to the door, graceful despite her heels. "I'd go crazy in your situation." She heard him mutter something as she walked out the door, but didn't bother trying to catch what he said. It would just be grumpy muttering, nothing worth bothering over. Probably something to do with her sanity.

Not long after, Glynda exited the clock-tower that dominated Beacon academy. After a quick glimpse around, she rose into the air. Glynda didn't technically have the power of flight – her semblance was telekinesis. But while she couldn't lift herself, her shoes were another matter. Thus, flight was as hard as walking in heels. Sure it was tough, but the benefits were _so_ worth it. The result was that Vale was almost literally a hop, skip, and a jump away from beacon for her, despite them being separated by a massive cliff face.

After landing gently on a rooftop, Glynda checked her ***** for any messages. A single image from Ozpin showed a map with a bright red dot on it. A short message followed as she looked at the map, saying only "Please clean up afterward." Glynda sighed. She was too young for this shit. Time for some fun.

The woman's dark figure sped across the sky, searching for the chaos she had been assured was going on. And there it was – a group of six White Fang attacking a Dust delivery truck, their stylized Grimm masks making it quite simple to tell friend from foe. She saw two Vale policemen there, but they were focused on getting bystanders out of harm's way rather than directly addressing the problem. That's where Glynda came in.

She landed daintily behind the group of criminals and crossed her arms. A flat look of disdain formed on her face, contrasting with her more expressive nature while alone with Ozpin. "Is there a problem here?" She asked in a calm and clear voice.

The only response was a fist swung at her by the nearest of the group. Glynda noted quickly that they were wearing some form of brass knuckles, before flicking her riding crop and willing the ground beneath her attacker to slide out from under him. The pavement moved with her thoughts, pulling the White Fang soldier off his feet, and then smashing into two of the others. The three others managed to dodge the wave of pavement, rolling gracefully out of the way. Not that it would help them. Enemies always underestimated Glynda. Not because they thought she was weak – not many people were that stupid. They underestimated her because she was just that strong. They might think that telekinesis would be tough to fight, but few actually understood what the full capabilities of her power meant.

The White Fang were learning what it meant firsthand. Every place to stand worked for their enemy. There was no piece of ground safe to stand on, no weapon that was not her tool. A blade swung at her would twist in the hands of the wielder, while the road opened up to trap their feet with each step. Guns jammed as dirt and rocks wormed their way into every available crevice. Their weapons might be Aura strengthened to prevent direct damage, but that didn't change the basic mechanics that the weapons operated on.

The criminals were slowly captured one by one, until only the one armed with brass knuckles remained, and not because he was lucky. Glynda had been focusing most of her attention on him from the get-go, but he had still managed to evade her attempts to trap him, always managing to leap away at the last possible moment. He had nearly been able to land a blow on her, blocked only by the riding crop that knocked his hand away with force much greater than he expected. But now she could put all of her focus onto her lone enemy.

She wasn't sure what animal trait he had, though being a White Fang member it was practically guaranteed that he was a faunus. Their traits were often a useful ace in the hole, generally not nearly as powerful as a semblance, but often capable of turning the tide of a fight. But it didn't really matter what his trait was. An ace in the hole is only useful if your enemy doesn't have a joker. And people are less likely to call you out for mixing metaphors if you can turn the very ground into a lethal weapon.

The fight paused as Glynda and the masked soldier watched each other. "You are an excellent fighter. I wouldn't mind making someone as talented as you into a hunter. What do you say?" Glynda wasn't lying when she made the offer. Desperation for good Hunters to hold off the Grimm lead to a justice system that heavily favored "community service" as an alternative to jail time, at least for those criminals with some talent for combat. Some people worried about allowing this "mercy" to be extended to members of organized crime, fearing the corruption of the biggest reason why the Grimm weren't swarming over the walls. But Glynda wasn't one of those people. That might have been because blind faith was a beneficial trait for someone that hunts monsters that are drawn to negative emotions, or it might have been because Glynda knew something that gave her confidence. It could have been both. For whatever reason, her voice was filled with the strength of someone that truly believes what they say.

But this faunus wasn't interested. "I'm no traitor." He spat as he said this, pure spite in his voice. He swung again, but Glynda now showed her own combat skill, leaning out of the way of the blow with ease. "I'd rather be thrown in a pit if you manage to beat me. It would be more honest than what you do to most faunus."

Glynda sighed, "You would think that a relentless enemy literally made of negative emotions would be enough to unite everyone."

His expression was hidden by his mask, but Glynda could hear the emotion behind his voice as he said, "That's what I'm fighting for".

Glynda nodded at this, her eyes showing just a hint of sadness. Then she swished her crop, causing the rubble around her to rise up. "I'm sorry that you feel this is necessary". With that, the rubble rushed forward, spinning around the faunus. His eyes widened, all avenues of escape blocked by whirling rocks. They slowly closed in on him, obscuring him from view, then flying up and across the street, in what appeared to be a brutal strike. But if his face had been visible, it would have shown surprise. He had been carried unharmed from the fight. He looked down at Glynda, who he could have sworn looked up at him for the briefest of instants before turning to the other defeated criminals. He accepted this chance and fled.

Glynda spent a good while helping the two officers arrest the captured members of the White Fang. When the last one had been hauled off, she pulled out an earth Dust crystal, shaking her head at the excessively repetitive name. Activating the crystal, she combined it with her semblance, resulting in the ability to repair all the damage that the fight had done. Broken pavement reshaped, damaged vehicles lost their dents and regained their lost pieces, electrical lines reformed, and lights turned back on. The road looked as if there had never been a fight in the first place.

Fighting with White Fang sometimes depressed Glynda. But she needed something to do, and criminals needed to be stopped. As least she felt somewhat awake now.

Many people had seen the fight, but one pair of eyes watched it with calculation, examining each use of Semblance, and each strike made. They watched until Glynda leaped into the air, noting how she positioned herself in order to do so, and how she failed to follow the normal parabolic curve normally dictated by physics.

Another data point.


	4. Domino 4: Interview

**Domino 4: Interview**

The nifty thing about waiting for someone to wake up is that they can't hear you until they're awake, even if you do something like repeat an impressive sounding line every five minutes. Not that Torchwick would ever do something like that of course.

"Ah, so you're finally awake. Excellent."

Yang opened her eyes in surprise. How had he known so soon? She had hardly realized that she was awake herself. "Huh? Well yeah. Wait, how did you know?". As she spoke she looked around. She was in a medium sized room in the style of Junior's club – possibly a private room there? She was lying on a couch, with a table between her and the strange man who had intruded on her previous fight. The man in question was standing with his back to her facing a desk, looking at something on it. A map if she had to guess. He was leaning on a cane in one hand and holding a cigar in the other.

"Awareness. Combat sense. Call it what you will, the ability to know when a new threat has arrived. Quite useful for someone who has to worry about such threats for a living." he took a pull of his cigar. "From what Junior tells me, you might want to hone that ability a bit yourself." Torchwick pivoted on one heel, turning towards Yang and leaning back against the desk. "But I also hear that you have bigger issues at hand. A missing sister?"

Yang was instantly on her guard, standing up from the couch and assuming a hasty combat stance. Her bruises and nose had already healed, but that feeling of extreme weariness remained. "What's it to you?" she asked brusquely, hoping that she looked more combat ready than she felt.

"Well it was an interesting situation. A girl is looking for her missing sister, and goes to a criminal information broker of all places to look for her. Why would she do that? She must think that her sister got wrapped up in some criminal business. Perhaps due to her huntress training said sister might have thought herself an equal to a skilled criminal, and gotten into a nasty scuffle. Am I on the right track?"

Yang narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "One, you didn't answer my question. Two, yes you are on the right track. You must be pretty good at guessing, unless..."

Torchwick cut her off. "You could say that discerning patterns is my job, or at least my hobby. Which really answers both of your questions. But if that isn't enough for you, there is one other thing that interests me in this little mess. You." Torchwick paused, pointing at Yang with the hand holding a cigar.

"Well it isn't every day that a guy tells me that they are interested in me… Oh wait, yes it is! Sorry, you aren't my type." Yang relaxed into her normal combat snarkiness, still ready to fight, but no longer held by the desperate panic that she had been absorbed in since being unable to find her sister. Something about this man just felt so easygoing that it seemed only natural, in spite of everything.

Torchwick chuckled. "I'll have to remember that, my apologies." as he said this he gave an elegant bow, but wore a broad smirk. "Amusingly enough, I do in fact want you for your body. What I saw on the dancefloor was quite impressive. Handling a man and two women at the same time? Quite breathtaking." He paused, noting Yang's expression of mixed annoyance and amusement. But jesting aside, I have a deal for you, if you are interested."

Yang's amusement quickly faded. "A deal? What do you mean?"

"Well I don't work for free, seeing as that would defeat the purpose of working, but I would be willing to find your sister for you within 24 hours, on one condition – that I be able to call on your aid once if I ever run into a time at which I need it."

"You do know there are easier ways of getting my number right?" Yang once again raised a flirty smile.

"Perhaps I enjoy the challenge. So what do you say? Willing to work with me?" Roman leaned his cane against the desk and extended his hand. "Shall we be partners for a time?".

Yang looked at his hand and then looked up with an incredulous look. "That quick? I don't know who you are. You haven't even introduced yourself!"

"Fair enough." The man pulled his hand back and placed it against his chest. "The name's Roman Torchwick, professional thief, liar, and survivalist, and leader of several similar individuals. But attacking kids isn't my style, and that means that someone is edging in on my turf." A predatory gleam lit up his face. "And I don't like competition." A moment passed and then a innocent smile punctuated his slightly less-innocent resume. "Work for you, Yang?"

Yang hesitated. "They do say it takes a thief to catch a thief." She considered for a moment more, "Well, if you can find her, I'm willing to work with you Roman. Once." At this she finally reached out to shake. Torchwick accepted it graciously.

"That's a start at least. But now I must do my share of the deal. I'll let you know when I find her." With that he opened the door to the room, allowing Yang a glimpse of the club.

"How ya gonna contact me?" Yang checked her pockets for her *****. Realizing that she didn't have it on her, she looked up again at Torchwick, who was holding it in his hand. She quickly yanked it out of his hand, which he responded to with a smirk.

"I think I may have come across your number somewhere. So long miss Xiao Long." He bowed while holding the door open. "I do hope that we will have plenty of business in the future.

After Yang walked out of the building, Roman pulled out his *****. "Hello Cobalt. How do you feel about getting a promotion? I believe a new business opportunity has arisen."


End file.
